[AISWorld] CFP -- Cutter IT Journal -- IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?

[Feller, Joseph]

Call for Papers
Cutter IT Journal
Joseph Feller, Guest Editor
Abstract Submission Date: 18 March 2011
Articles Due: 29 April 2011

IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?

"Crowdsourcing" [1] is the practice of leveraging large groups of (often anonymous) people to complete tasks, to generate ideas, to make decisions and to solve problems. Crowdsourcing has emerged as a compelling alternative to the traditional processes that firms rely on to innovate and to create and capture value. This is particularly true in the IT industry (hardware, software and services) and indeed in a variety of IT-intensive sectors. In these areas, crowds are being used in a number of different ways -- to generate ideas for future products/services, to test and improve existing products/services, to add functionality/content to a company's platform, to process large information spaces and to solve thorny innovation problems, just to name a few. Perhaps most notably, open source software -- software designed and built by crowds -- has had a major impact on the strategies and operations of a wide variety of firms. 

Just as IT can benefit from crowds, crowds can benefit from IT. For example, the effectiveness of Amazon's product recommendation engine is dependent on the activities and preferences of millions of shoppers but it is just as dependent on the data capture and data processing mechanisms that bring the distributed intelligence of the crowd together. Likewise, Wikipedia would not exist without its army of volunteers, but those volunteers are reliant upon the collaborative editing functionality of the WikiMedia platform. There are many examples of this relationship between the crowd and technology, such as the use of Internet-based communication and coordination tools in open source software, the tagging functionality that makes sites like Flickr, YouTube and Delicious so searchable, and so on.

Of course, leveraging crowds is not easy, and multiple challenges need to be overcome by any would-be crowdsourcer. I'll provide just four examples here. First, crowds are noisy and chaotic, and coordinating their efforts (or helping them to coordinate their own efforts) is not trivial. Second, while crowds are potentially very smart, we need mechanisms for aggregating their widely distributed intelligence if we are to make use of it. Third, crowds make mistakes and produce mixed quality work, thus we need to be able to separate the wheat from the chafe (or again, to help the crowd do so itself). Fourth, crowds are made of people, and people each have their own individual drives and goals, thus motivating the crowd is a critical issue (particularly when the outcome is for the benefit of a firm, not a public good).

The June 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal will examine both the opportunities and challenges created by the crowdsourcing phenomenon, particularly in the context of IT and IT-intensive businesses. In this Call for Papers, we therefore call for article submissions offering insightful analysis and new research related to two high-level questions:

What can CROWDSOURING do for IT? 

* How can crowds be leveraged effectively ... 
	* to solve technological innovation problems? 
	* in new product/service development?
	* to enhance and support existing products/services?
	* in the software engineering lifecycle (e.g. software testing)?
	* to add value to a firm's technology platform (e.g. Facebook apps)?
	* in the deployment of technologies (e.g. distributed/volunteer computing)?

* What challenges do IT professionals face in working with crowds (technological, operational, legal or otherwise)?

* How can such challenges be overcome?

What can IT do for CROWDSOURCING?

* How can technology ... 
	* help coordinate the efforts of crowds?
	* enable information and knowledge sharing within crowds?
	* aggregate the distributed intelligence of crowds?
	* be used to filter and refine the output of crowds?
	* help crowdsourcers attract (and keep) a crowd?

* What challenges are associated with these IT solutions?

* How can such challenges be overcome?

TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE IDEA
Please respond to the Guest Editor, Joseph Feller at JFeller[at]afis[dot]ucc[dot]ie with a copy to itjournal[at]cutter[dot]com by 18 March 2011. Please include an extended abstract and short outline showing the major discussion points.

ARTICLE DEADLINE
Accepted articles are due by 29 April 2011.

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
Most Cutter IT Journal articles are approximately 2,500-3,500 words long, plus whatever graphics are appropriate. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact CITJ's Group Publisher, Christine Generali at cgenerali[at]cutter[dot]com or the Guest Editor, Joseph Feller at JFeller[at]afis[dot]ucc[dot]ie. Editorial guidelines are available at <<http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/edguide.html>>

AUDIENCE
Typical readers of Cutter IT Journal range from CIOs and vice presidents of software organizations to IT managers, directors, project leaders, and very senior technical staff. Most work in fairly large organizations: Fortune 500 IT shops, large computer vendors (IBM, HP, etc.), and government agencies. 48% of our readership is outside of the US (15% from Canada, 14% Europe, 5% Australia/NZ, 14% elsewhere). Please avoid introductory-level, tutorial coverage of a topic. Assume you're writing for someone who has been in the industry for 10 to 20 years, is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she will be asking, "What's the point? What do I do with this information?" Apply the "So what?" test to everything you write.

PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
We are pleased to offer Journal authors a year's complimentary subscription and five copies of the issue in which they are published. In addition, we occasionally pull excerpts, along with the author's bio, to include in our weekly Cutter Edge e-mail bulletin, which reaches another 8,000 readers. We'd also be pleased to quote you, or passages from your article, in Cutter press releases. If you plan to be speaking at industry conferences, we can arrange to make copies of your article or the entire issue available for attendees of those speaking engagements -- furthering your own promotional efforts.

ABOUT CUTTER IT JOURNAL
No other journal brings together so many cutting-edge thinkers, and lets them speak so bluntly and frankly. We strive to maintain the Journal's reputation as the "Harvard Business Review of IT." Our goal is to present well-grounded opinion (based on real, accountable experiences), research, and animated debate about each topic the Journal explores.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS CALL FOR PAPERS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT HAVE AN APPROPRIATE SUBMISSION.

1. See Howe, Jeff (2008) "Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business." Crown Publishing Group, New York, NY. 



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